One common type of self-service terminal is an automated teller machine (ATM). ATMs have a relatively complex customer interface, typically including a number of different apertures for inputting and outputting media at different stages of a transaction.
To enable customers to identify which aperture they should use at each stage of a transaction, each aperture has an associated media entry and/or exit indicator (MEI) that can be illuminated by a flashing light (typically a row of LEDs).
Throughout a transaction, an ATM selectively energises the appropriate MEI corresponding to the aperture that the customer should use at that particular stage of the transaction. For example, at the beginning of a transaction, the ATM energises an MEI located near the card reader aperture, indicating to the customer that he/she should insert his/her ATM card through that aperture to initiate a transaction.
Some ATM vendors have a default configuration of devices for an ATM, but this configuration can be changed to suit the ATM purchaser's requirements. For example, a default configuration may include one cash dispenser, one motorised card reader, one cheque processing module, one banknote depository, and the like. Some ATM purchasers may prefer to have two cash dispensers but no depository, no cheque processing module, and a dip card reader instead of a motorised card reader.
The MEIs are typically mapped to device identifiers according to the default configuration. This enables software applications to energise the appropriate MEI using the correct device identifier. However, any ATMs that are configured differently to the default configuration may require a re-mapping of the MEIs to device identifiers in the application software; this requires the mapping to be configured and stored in permanent storage on the ATM during ATM build (that is, during production of the ATM) or during ATM commissioning at the installation site.
Re-mapping the MEIs to device identifiers for a custom ATM configuration ensures that the ATM application software can energise the appropriate MEI at each stage of a transaction. If this re-mapping is not performed, then the wrong MEI may be energised at each stage of a transaction. This re-mapping process is inefficient and time-consuming.
It would be desirable to have an improved method of mapping MEIs to device identifiers.